Investigating the Role of Spiders in Integrated Pest Management for Biological Control of Nebraska Crop Pests
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Dissertations and Student Research in Entomology Entomology, Department of Spring 5-2021 Investigating the Role of Spiders in Integrated Pest Management for Biological Control of Nebraska Crop Pests Samantha Daniel University of Nebraska-Lincoln Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/entomologydiss Part of the Agriculture Commons, and the Entomology Commons Daniel, Samantha, "Investigating the Role of Spiders in Integrated Pest Management for Biological Control of Nebraska Crop Pests" (2021). Dissertations and Student Research in Entomology. 69. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/entomologydiss/69 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Entomology, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations and Student Research in Entomology by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Investigating the Role of Spiders in Integrated Pest Management for Biological Control of Nebraska Crop Pests By Samantha Rose Daniel A THESIS Presented to the Faculty of The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Master of Science Major: Entomology Under the Supervision of Professor Julie Peterson and Professor Robert Wright Lincoln, Nebraska May 2021 Investigating the Role of Spiders in Integrated Pest Management for Biological Control of Nebraska Crop Pests Samantha Rose Daniel, M.S. University of Nebraska, 2021 Advisors: Julie A. Peterson and Robert J. Wright As generalist predators, spiders are capable of fulfilling a wide variety of ecological niches allowing them to intercept and prey upon an array of insect species. This characteristic could be particularly advantageous within agricultural ecosystems. This project sought to reveal the composition and abundance of spider communities within corn fields in western Nebraska and the impact of agronomic practices on those communities as well as determine the potential for spider predation upon two key pests of corn. Spiders were collected from eight corn fields from May to August 2017 and four corn fields from May to August 2018. Additionally, the populations of two important pests of corn, western corn rootworm (Diabrotica virgifera virgifera) and western bean cutworm (Striacosta albicosta), were sampled to determine prey availability. During the course of this study, a total of 1,011 spider specimens composed of 15 families, 34 genera and 53 species were collected from the 12 field sites for both years combined. Of the total specimen count, 300 (30%) were immatures. Two families, Lycosidae and Linyphiidae, made up 60% (n = 605) and 24% (n = 244) of all specimens collected, respectively. Gnaphosidae (n = 36) and Thomisidae (n=36) were the third most common families collected, representing 4% each of all spiders collected. The impact of three agronomic practices (tillage, crop rotation and insecticide use) on spider species diversity and evenness was evaluated. Species evenness was not significantly affected by any of the practices while species diversity was significantly impacted by insecticide use alone. Pest population sampling revealed presence of both western corn rootworm and western bean cutworm in the sampled fields. Field-collected Thomisidae and Lycosidae were screened for target prey DNA: none of the screened thomisids tested positive for S. albicosta DNA while only two lycosids tested positive for D. v. virgifera DNA. While these results indicate no to very low predation of these pests by the selected spider families in the field, a variety of factors including short DNA detectability windows, spider feeding habits and prey availability at the time of spider capture may help to explain these results and illustrate a need for additional studies. These results reveal the abundance and composition of spider communities in Nebraska corn fields as well as the role of spiders within agroecosystems. The results can be utilized to develop improved conservation biological control programs in the future. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my advisor Dr. Julie A. Peterson for her support and encouragement and for providing me an opportunity to study my favorite arthropod in a meaningful and applicable way. I would also like to thank my co-advisor Dr. Robert J. Wright and my committee member Dr. Eileen Hebets for their support, guidance, and wisdom. This project was partially supported by the Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station with funding from the Hatch Act (Accession Number 1007272) and Hatch Multistate Research capacity funding program (Accession Number 1006556) from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Thank you for your support. Thank you to the Entomology Department, especially the many wonderful members of the Agroecosystems Entomology Lab: Ruby Anderson for her immense help in completing the molecular work for this project, Robert King for his assistance with building spider housing and spider collecting and Alex Lehmann for being a great field work partner. I would also like to thank Kelsey Karnik at the Statistics Help Desk for her invaluable knowledge and assistance. A special thank you goes out to my network of arachnologists who were invaluable in verifying spider identifications. Dr. Paula Cushing at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Dr. Michael Draney at the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay and Dr. Marc Milne at the University of Indianapolis. Finally, I would like to thank my family for their encouragement and support throughout this process. To my mom and dad for making sacrifices so that I could have the best foundational education that made this experience all the more possible. A special thank you goes to my boyfriend Steve Miller who has encouraged me and challenged me to be the best version of myself while being my rock. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ 9 LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………………………………………...…8 CHAPTER 1: Literature Review .................................................................................. 11 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 11 Spider Biology & Ecology ............................................................................................ 12 Spiders in Agroecosystems ........................................................................................... 16 Spiders as Biological Control Agents ........................................................................... 21 Annual agroecosystem spider communities.............................................................. 24 Perennial agroecosystem spider communities .......................................................... 25 Impact of agronomic practices on spider populations .................................................. 27 Chemical controls & transgenic crops ...................................................................... 27 Other Agronomic Practices ....................................................................................... 30 Tillage ................................................................................................................... 31 Crop Diversity & Structural Complexity .............................................................. 32 Harvesting ............................................................................................................. 33 Western Corn Rootworm .............................................................................................. 34 Biology & ecology .................................................................................................... 34 Management .............................................................................................................. 35 Biological control...................................................................................................... 37 Western Bean Cutworm ................................................................................................ 39 Ecology & Lifecycle ................................................................................................. 39 Management .............................................................................................................. 40 Biological control...................................................................................................... 42 Molecular Gut-Content Analysis .................................................................................. 43 Rationale & Objectives ................................................................................................. 46 References Cited ........................................................................................................... 48 CHAPTER 2: Spider communities and the impact of agronomic practices in western Nebraska agroecosystems ................................................................................ 62 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 62 Materials and Methods .................................................................................................. 65 Field sites .................................................................................................................